New tools and Anodising

I've bought some tools for the electrics jobs to come.

They are a ratchet type crimper, a wire stripper and some micro nippers.

The ratchet crimper is the one to get as it takes the brains out of crimping - giving the perfect pressure every time.

The wire stripper is an auto type which if you view the video below you will see has a complicated action that grips the wire and then strips off a certain amount (set by the little metal angle on the end) and then releases the whole lot. This stripper has an AWG (American Wire Gauge) range that will cover almost everything I am doing (bar the battery and starter wires).

The micro nippers are just the thing for cutting tie wraps in hard to reach places, and they cut with a flush edge so that the tie wrap doesn't end up drawing blood from you later down the line when you are reaching in to do some maintenance.

I'm also getting a bunch of parts anodised this week.

Firstly to protect the aluminium from corrosion and secondly because I don't like the gold coloured anodising that has been done on several parts. I'll be going for silver on everything.

Electrics Tools

Parts for Anodising

Manual labour

This is all I seem to be doing lately. Reading manuals...

The EFIS and Transponder are arriving next week. The Radio will follow at the end of the month as they are out of stock just now.

Rotron Lecture

Last night I attended a talk by Gilo Cardozo, (the founder and CEO of Rotron Engines) at the Royal Aeronautical Society here in London.

Absolutely fascinating stuff!

A good bit of the talk was about his adventure of flying over Mt Everest in a para motor.

The previous height record for a para motor was 17,000 ft.

He had to design and build an engine capable of 30,000 ft.

He did it in a very short time scale and ended up with a single rotor, rotary engine which was heavily supercharged. (3 bar pressure)

It weighed 25kg and produced 100hp - a first for power to weight.

He was partnered with Bear Grylls and Bear was the one who flew over Everest after Gilo's engine lost power on the climb up due to the supercharger drive belt breaking.

The twin rotor shown below weighs just 22kg (block, including alternator and starter) and puts out a peak power of 210hp, (yes you read that right) with a max continuous of 150hp.

A smaller single rotor engine of 40hp will go into the new eGo. A Sub 115kg aircraft that is nearing first flight here in Cambridge, UK.

Rotron have over come the two big drawbacks of a rotary engine: Heat (internal) and oil consumption.

They do this by having cold air (with a mist of oil in it) pump around the engine (through the gold port covers you see below). This air cools the internals of the engine and also is compressed (effectively like a supercharger) before being introduced into the combustion chamber.

The oil consumption is now down to 400:1

Also they use ceramic seals which never wear out and are not affected by heat.

More about Rotron here: http://www.rotronaero.com/

And the eGo here: http://www.e-goaeroplanes.com/all-the-latest/

22kg, 200hp

Rotron founder Gilo Gardozo

eGo, 115kg empty weight

Prototype is nearly ready for first flight

Week 78 - Panel, Aerials and static tube install

Hours to date: 801.5

Lately I've been mainly reading installation manuals - for the Dynon D180 - all 157 pages of it! For the UL power engine it's 50 - the UL one is very clear and with lots of diagrams and photos - the Dynon one is not so good but should be okay.

I've still got to read the Trig Radio and Transponder ones - about 60 pages each.

I'm now ready to take the plunge and order the Dynon EFIS and Trig radio and transponder. After that I'll be about £6,000 poorer!

So the focus for me at the moment is to get the panel installed. So that's what I've been working on.

As you can see below there are 3 mounting points. Although I am thinking about doing what Pete does and cutting the panel into two sections. The lower one stays put and the top section can be taken out pretty easily for maintenance or troubleshooting.

If I do this then I'll have to make up a little box for the lower section so that I can mount that to the bottom of the safety cell.

The two sections will then get joined by a flange and anchor nuts.

You can see my final panel layout below - the only thing that will change is I may put the ECU switch behind a cage (same as the Master and 2 ignitions) as if that is flipped off then the engine stops!

The other switch will be a general one for Avionics.

The other work I've been doing lately is installing the rudder cable tubes, plus the aerials for the transponder and radio.

They are pretty nifty aerials especially designed for composite aircraft - so that they do not need a ground plane. Pete uses them and says they work very well.

They are from a US company called Advanced Aircraft Electronics. The aerials themselves can be ordered from Aircraft Spruce.

The transponder is the smaller one towards the rear, the radio is the large one wrapping itself around the inside of the fuselage.

These are just stuck on with flock.

As you can see I've also installed the static fittings and tube to the static ports. Still got to run that all the way up to the cockpit, but I will wait until I have made up some larger straps to cover the rudder tubes, transponder aerial cable and static line all in one go.

Final panel layout (before it changes again!)

Aerials and static lines plus rudder cable tubes all in place.

Side mount for the panel

2 side mounts for panel in place

New Rotary engine from Austro (Diamond Aircraft)

No new aero engines for years and then two come along at once!

This thing is impressively light.

Obviously the weight quoted of 27kg is only representing the engine itself and not the installed weight. 

Even so this looks like a great little unit for a Twister (which was of course originally designed around a Rotary engine).

It also seems like they have solved one of the worst problems with a Rotary and that is oil consumption.

The granddaddy of this engine was built and developed by Norton for their motorcycles back in the 80's. It later became Mid-West and was then sold to Diamond Aircraft.

Text below From the Austro website.

Austro Engine successfully tested brand new rotary engine

On the 8th of January 2013 the engine AE80R which is in development since 2.5 years successfully performed on the Austro Engine test bench. As a final target it will have a weight of 27 kg with an output of 80 hp (58 kw). Compared to the AE50R (55 PS Austro Engine rotary engine) the new engine has no loss lubrication system anymore which results in an extremely low oil consumption. A dual FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) controlled fuel injection system will keep fuel consumption on the lowest possible level. The engine is designed to power small manned or unmanned aircraft. According to Christian Dries, Chairman and Owner Diamond Aircraft, the AE80R might has the potential to become one of the leader in the extremely weight sensitive market of LSA (Light Sport Aircraft) and ultra-light aircraft. “The engine has no vibration and therefore it is ideal to power UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) with highly sensitive equipment” he added.

New light aircraft engine

From Italy comes the ICP M09.

80hp

Based on a motorcycle V-twin of 1225cc.

It's a bolt on package with everything included - just bolt onto your engine mount and connect up the electric and fuel lines.

Priced between 12 and 13 K euros.

It will be formally released at Aero Friedrichshafen in April.

I note that it's installed weight is 5 kg heavier than the UL260iSA and it produces 27 less hp.

It's not for me but it may work well in a Twister for someone on a budget.

More detail and pics on this link.

http://www.eaa.org/news/2012/2012-11-21_ICP-announces-new-LSA-engine.asp

Week 76 - Air vent, static ports, rudder cable tubes

Hours to date: 782.0

I've had a quiet couple of weeks on the kit due to the extremely cold weather we've had - minus 4 at night and not much warmer during the day - which kept me out of the garage. Plus I spent 3 days at the LAA Electrics and Avionics courses.

The Electrics day was pretty intense and my brain turned to mush by mid afternoon.

The Avionics day was much more relaxed - discussing all the nice toys you can put in light aircraft these days.

I came away feeling much more confident about installing the electrics and I haven't changed my panel layout much at all - just moved the fuses away from the panel face. I will install a small fuse box behind the panel.

The NACA inlet is coming along well - still got some finishing to do to the inlet and I finally got around to bonding in the outlet cavity.

First off I put a water drain tube on the bottom of the cavity though.

As you can see it was 'clamps for Africa' on the bonding of the outlet cavity.

After that I installed the tubes that the rudder cables run in.

It was like trying to wrestle a snake working with these tubes. They've been coiled up for so many years that they do not want to lay flat. You've got to thread them in a small space in between the safety cell and fuselage. The starboard side was easier as I could help to feed it through with my hand inside the air vent hole.

I've just taped them in place for the moment. I'll install them properly when I bond on those fiberglass straps I made up recently.

Next up was installing the static ports. I got these from Aircraft Spruce and they are specifically designed for composite aircraft. (Pete uses gliding ones which I found too hard to get hold of). Pretty straight forward - just cut a hole and bond in with flock. The location of the ports I got from Pete and for your information is 1000mm forward of the leading edge of the tailplane and then 435mm down from the centreline of the fuselage (use a flexible ruler for that).

I've also got the transponder and radio antennas (aerials) to install - more about those in the next post.

Final pic is of my shiny new military style stick grip from Infinity. A nice bit of kit - I won't be using many of the buttons - most likely just the push to talk. I may put the radio frequency flip function on it if my radio supports it.

Also the observant amongst you will see that the control column is not the factory supplied one. Pete has had these made up (at great expense - don't ask!) and approved by the LAA as a mod. The two things that are different are the bearings at the bottom and the bracket for mounting the trim at the top. It does feel like a quality piece of kit now - I think it's important to have primary controls that feel just right and will stay that way without wearing out.

Once I've finished the NACA duct I'll start on installing the instrument panel.

Bonding in vent cavity

Rudder cable tubes - rough fit before installing.

NACA duct - still some finishing to do here.

Static port

Infinity Stick grip on mod control column

Great Aircraft Electrics resource

And it's free.

Download the whole 307 pages from here:

http://www.aeroelectric.com/Catalog/pub/pub.html

Actual link to file is here: http://www.aeroelectric.com/Book/AEC12A_PDF.zip

The author is the guru of aircraft electrics, Bob Nuckolls.

Unfortunately the download is separate PDFs for each chapter - I have combined them all into one PDF and can send the link to that if anyone is interested.

First Italian Twister flies

Actually it was built in Lithuania but this is the first Twister registered in Italy.

Looks good in Silver.

Powered by a standard 97hp UL Power engine.

The brain needed to build a plane

Week 74 - NACA inlet

Hours to date: 771.25

The NACA inlet is progressing well.

That technique of micro and neat resin didn't really work out for me.

Maybe I rushed it with laying up before the black paint was properly hard but it didn't release at all.

I ended up having to dig it out with a screwdriver then Dremel away the remaining thin layer of foam and paint.

So for the next part (the cockpit vent cavity) I didn't bother with the resin or paint. I just put a thin layer of micro on the foam to fill in the little pinholes and then gave that a light sand and layed up straight over that.

Same method and time to get the foam out and less work than the painting and waxing so until I find out why it didn't work I won't bother with it again.

You'll notice that I bonded in a piece of PVC pipe to make a strong connection for the scat hose.

I need not have bothered with this as 3 or 4 layers of fiberglass is strong enough - besides after talking to Pete I found out he doesn't use a hose clamp but just some silicone sealant and tape to hold it on.

As it turns out the vent cavity did not fit in the space between the cell and fuse anyway so I had to cut that PVC section off and oval the fiberglass.

Luckily that piece was not fully set when I did that and I was able to put it in the vice overnight and this set it in an oval.

I should point out why I am going with this sealed hose method rather than the factory set up. 

Their set up involves sealing the cell to the fuse over a large area with expanding foam to create an air tight cavity.

I'm not sure that is any easier to do and would leave no where for rain water or any other object that gets in to find it's way out.

I've built a water drain into the bottom of the vent cavity and will run a small tube from the base of that to the bottom of the fuse as a drain.

Other than this work I've just been doing more filling and sanding in the cockpit interior - getting there...

On the rudder pedals the manual calls for inserting 220mm of the Polyamid tube into the S shaped pieces of metal on the sides of the pedals.

These are so the rudder cables don't wear or catch on these tubes.

Well guess what? The tube doesn't fit!

I tried and the outside diameter is much too big to fit into these tubes...

I got some other tube from another supplier and that only just fitted - using WD40 and a bit of patience - and it was 1mm less diameter than the factory supplied tube so there was no way that was ever going to fit.

FYI - 6mm outside diameter and at least 4mm inside diameter will do the job.

This weekend I am away on the LAA Electrics and Avionics course so probably won't update the blog for another 2 weeks.

Tube in rudder pedals

Mold for NACA connector with PVC pipe on end

Seat holding blocks

NACA duct and connecter bonded together

Cabin vent assembly before bonding in.

Test fit of Vent cavity

NACA duct test fit

Moment of truth - Bonding it in

Inside view before bonding in

Week 72 - Seat, panel, NACA inlet

Hours to date: 747.25

As you can see I've nearly reached 750 hours - but does this mean I'm halfway?

I don't think so, as the oil cooler mod has showed me how much more time is taken when you go 'freestyle'.

I've still got the cowling to do and that will be at least another 200 hours. So I may be looking at more like 1750 to 2000 hours rather than my initial estimate of 1500 hours.

If it does turn out to be 1500 hours then I'll be looking at a first flight in about May of 2014 (if I keep up my current average of work hours).

In the last few days I've been working on cockpit related stuff.

The panel is coming along nicely - first coat of primer is on and there is a little more filling to do but it is close to receiving it's final prime and paint. 

I'm going to go for a matt grey charcoal on the panel. I'll most likely go for a charcoal grey on the interior of the cockpit too.

I've also bought a Winter Altimeter to go with the ASI - so that's all my 'steam' gauges bought.

I'm going to hold off on buying the EFIS, Radio and Transponder until after my Avionics course as I want to see what they say about my proposed layout.

The panel is mounted with 3 right angle pieces of fiberglass - which were not part of the kit - so I have made up my own.

I just used a block of wood with duct tape on it then laid up 8 layers of fabric on it and finished off with a layer of peel ply. Then I wrapped the whole thing in plastic, stretched that tight and taped it down so the fabric would keep to the edge of the block of wood and not get any air bubbles in it.

Worked out pretty good.

I used the same method to make up some 'straps' for holding the rudder pedal tubes (and other static tubes) in place.

I used a piece of the tube taped onto a block of wood with duct tape.

This time I put the peel ply down first so that the bonding surface when done will be ready to use with no further work.

These are just stuck on with flock (with the tube taped in place till the flock hardens).

I made up all the blocks of plywood that hold the seat in position (I didn't take a photo for some reason). But then found that the seat itself doesn't fit very well at the front so it needed extending on the lower sides.

Pete says that final fitting is done with a load of micro on the floor of the cockpit (already covered with duct tape) and then the seat is just pushed into the micro and left to set. This should give a perfect fit when done.

Next up is the NACA inlet for the cockpit ventilation.

The duct supplied is for the old system of close-able vent. The manual calls for a air tight cavity to be made between the cell and the fuselage - made with expanding foam. Pete does not use this method and instead just has a scat hose connected to the NACA duct (of his own making) and then that connects to a cavity behind the vent control in the cockpit itself. Again this cavity is made by Pete.

I've decided to go the same route and modify the supplied NACA inlet by building a section behind it that transfers the air from the inlet to a hose.

I've sculpted this out of foam and it will be bonded onto the duct as a one piece unit when it is done.

I'm also trying a new method of making a mold plug out of foam. Rather than the sealing with micro and then sanding method. I read about it online and Pete says he uses it too so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Basically you just apply a thin layer of Micro slurry to the foam to fill any pin holes then straight away apply a thick coat of neat resin.

Allow that to set then just give the resin a light sand before painting and polishing and finally waxing.

Time will tell if this is the right way to go - it would certainly save a lot of time if it works.

Panel with first coat of primer

Seat bottom needs extending - card with duct tape for shape

Panel mounts all layed up, taped up and setting

Wood block and tube for making up securing straps

Factory cut hole is a bit large for the cockpit vent - I'll have to fix that

Panel mounts and securing straps all done except for cutting out

NACA inlet and foam plug for connection to hose

NACA inlet fitting pretty good in hole.

Securing straps cut out

Panel mounts cut out - metal and rubber mounts will be bolted on eventually

Foam plug for inlet with micro and neat resin.